Can it be done? I’ve acquired a new-to-me used saddle for the dumpster fire. Fits both him and the big red beast nicely. It’s a red-er CWD and while I don’t hate the color, I sure prefer my tack to be darker. Is there anything I should consider since it’s full buffalo? I may test a spot with hydrophane, but open to ideas. Since it’s used, I assume it’s been conditioned before so I don’t know that just a conditioner will darken it up.
Do you have any pics? Every Buffalo leather CWD I’ve seen darkened nicely, and quickly, to a chocolate brown with conditioner which makes me wonder if (since it’s used and it can be difficult for resellers to verify Buffalo vs calf IME) it is Buffalo. Their calf saddles, especially the older ones, had the more red color to them that mostly stayed that color.
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If it’s calf I could never find a way to darken my much older lighter colored Antares. Tried everything recommended and the color never changed much, just learned to live with it. The only thing I did not use was hydrophane because I was told it could permanently damage the leather and reduce resale value. FWIW I had zero problem reselling the lighter saddle a few years later.
Agree completely, we have a barn full of buffalo leather CWDs and they are all a very lovely dark chocolate color. 
It came from a very reputable seller that I think would know if its calf or buffalo? But could be wrong. I certainly don’t know the difference 
I might could tell if I had both types sitting in front of me.
It’s been a whirlwind since I bought it, going across country to try on the dumpster fire. So admittedly I haven’t looked super close at it aside from trial fitting on a few horses (two of which I had to do in the dark). So I now see some cracking and such. Maybe it wasn’t conditioned very much at all?
It’s a fit either way. So color won’t sway me. It’s still gorgeous. My preference is just the super dark dark chocolate brown. And I just don’t want to damage it by trying inappropriate things to darken it.
I’m starting to think it’s calf. Looking at pics of newer full buffalo saddles indicate there is grain throughout. This one you can only see the grain in the wear strips at the bottom of the flap.
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That looks like calf to me, but I am not a saddle fitter nor CWD seller. It looks like it will darken some (looks a touch thirsty) but it will keep that reddish color.
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My Voltaire is buffalo and if I so much as dismount across it against my belt it’s like Edward Scissorhands went cuckoo. Pretty saddle.
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It is thirsty. I’ll do some conditioner first and see if it does anything. If not, I may escalate some and see if I can get it darker with other options.
IF it’s buffalo there is a CWD crepe brush (or amazon) and you could scrub the old dirt off then re-condition.
But it also looks calf to me and that will darken with just some oil
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Well I need to take it outside in some natural daylight and see what it looks like after conditioning. It was thirsty!! It’s substantially darker now, seat still looks a little red but it’s much better. So I’m still leaning towards calf, but it’s a much better color now.
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Texture looks like buffalo to me. I’ve ridden in both full calf and buffalo CWDs and own a calf saddle. Also looks very dry. It will always have a little bit of a red tinge to it based on how it was initially dyed, but I think with some grease that is pretty dark (vs the older red calf saddles).
If it were calf, I’d say use olive oil on it. Does a good job of darkening without being too hard on the stitching. Soaks in well. They recommend it for their bridle leather, and I just got some new pieces to mix and match with older bridles, and they darkened right up to match quickly. But I don’t know if you can use that on buffalo or just the grease?
A reason why you can’t just go off of color… here is my hodgepodge of a saddle. Be nice to her, she’s 17 years old and I refuse to buy a new saddle until I have a new horse to get one for. My saddle used to be buffalo seat, knee rolls, and panels, and calf grain skirt and flap.
Now, the seat and skirt are 2 year old calf after I wore a hole in the seat.
The panels are 15 year old calf (long story, Antares messed up).
The flap is 17 year old grain calf
The knee roll is 17 year old buffalo
You can see how all the colors are different, even with same types of leather (Everything has been replaced through Antares). The seat and skirt refuse to darken, despite being calf, no matter what I do.
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It may be that when I google “CWD buffalo saddle”, most of the pictures are of a new “double grain” buffalo; I don’t particularly know what that means but it is a very obvious grained texture. So maybe in previous years, the texture was not so obvious?
I greased it up pretty good and while the seat hasn’t changed much, the rest of the saddle darkened up quite a bit. I would say a chocolate color with a red hue. It’s quite pretty but it was really dry.
I don’t particularly like the film that the grease leaves. So I may try olive oil lightly and see if that would take it a shade darker or no.
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